Young people and reading: a couple to be remade

Readers in Sicily hold several negative records and in
the last five years 2,300 bookstores have closed their doors in Italy. However,
Istat data reveal how new generations still want to read. Where does the crisis
come from? What can we do to reverse the trend?

In Sicily only one in four people read. This discouraging
numerical insight by ISTAT 2018 would already shed light on the alarming
picture of the regional educational poverty. However, it is aggravated by the
fact that almost one in every two people reads in Sardinia, that is, a tendency
almost in line with the national one. In the meantime, Italy is facing a difficult
paradox to be solved: despite an increase in the book production and in the supply
of titles, in the last five years 2,300 bookstores have been closed. What is
the cause of this unfortunate decline? Which are the considerations needed to
reverse the trend?

MISCONCEPTIONS. Contrary to what some hasty simplifications would
suggest, the largest share of readers is represented by the young people, with
a peak in the range between 15 and 17 years old. Despite what digital media
could stimulate them to do, they continue (just like adults do) to prefer a
paper-based reading medium (78.4%), so that only 7.9% of readers declare to
rely exclusively on eBbooks. That, of course, allows us to demystify another
strongly fashionable belief in the current debate on the theme, as the crisis
in the book industry is not only due to the intrusive spread of ecommerce
activity. The level of differentiation between traditional content and other
ones, after all, is still basic: only 13.4% of eBooks have some difference and some
additional features compared to the paper. A first interesting interpretative
key could derive from that: the future of publishers, but also of libraries and
bookshops, will depend on their ability to specialize and differentiate their
offer. Can paper and digital continue to go hand in hand? They could, if only
the cultural proposal to their users was carefully calibrated on the mean
assigned to its circulation.

THE
PROTECTION OF KNOWLEDGE.
If young people like developing their knowledge and if printed books still play
an important role in that, then how can we explain the recent closure of
bookshops, from the oldest and most prestigious ones to the small and familiar
small-town spots? First of all, a urgent need for a more widespread presence on
the territory is necessary: this doesn’t certainly mean to emulate the model of
the French village Bé­che­rel ‒ where there are
fifteen bookshops for only 700 inhabitants ‒, but attempting at least to fill the
gaps like they did in Porto Empedocle, where for a total of 17,000 citizens no
library is there, in addition to the 686 cities with more than 10,000
inhabitants without libraries. Anyway, this is not enough. Once their presence
is guaranteed, they will need to have true safeguards, that is, bookshops must
not only be passive receptacles of volumes, but dynamic realities that know how
to find readers. This is the gamble of project like Ambulanza Letteraria (Book Emergency Room): throwing books into
reality, making them surprisingly nomad. That is important because, even before
encouraging reading, we should transmit its value and its essential benefits for
our lives. The editors’ admission, in this regard, is not surprising: only the
27.8% has made an effort to organize educational initiatives in schools,
libraries and bookshops. Perhaps, beyond the objective institutional
improvements to be applied to the publishing system, the point is right here: learning
ow to network. That means to be able to involve those who are outside the
threshold of one’s own shop with enthusiasm, by not giving a purchasing advice,
but a reason to step in.